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"You carry the same blood as us, it seems. Nevertheless, you're an outsider. Just remember, if you become unpleasant to our eyes, you'll face severe consequences..."— Chapter 1-2 Ending

Father Bitores Mendez was a Catholic priest whose parish constituted an isolated, rural community in Spain. Mendez fell to the influence of bio-weapons developer and terrorist Osmund Saddler, who converted people to his cult as a means of control. Fr. Mendez led the initial hunt for USSTRATCOM agent Leon S. Kennedy, Ashley Graham, Dr. Luis Sera, and Ada Wong as they made their way through his village, but was ultimately killed as the four made their way into Salazar's castle. Some of Mendez's distinguishing characteristics included his imposing stature and trench coat, his artificial left eye, an extraordinary resistance to firearms, and superhuman strength.

Biography

Sometime before 2004, Fr. Mendez was approached by Osmund Saddler, who sought to exploit Mendez' influential position among the locals to convert them. Mendez eventually shifted to Saddler's cause, becoming a priest for the Los Iluminados cult,[1][note 1] and asked the villagers to visit the chapel when the harvest festival was over.[2] There, Saddler, using Fr. Mendez's trust in him, convinced the people that his sermon spoke the truth, that the renowned First Castellan was a wicked man, and that by being baptised in the way of Los Iluminados, their souls would be saved.[2] For Fr. Mendez's service, he was given a newly-engineered Dominant species Plaga, which allowed him full control over his body as well as the ability to mutate if needed.[3] Following the successful conversion and parasitisation of the villagers, Fr. Mendez was given control over them as Saddler's lieutenant.[2]

In 2004, Saddler's American mole abducted Ashley Graham, the daughter of the American President, in a plot to infiltrate and convert the United States government to Los Iluminados. This operation coincided with the escape of Dr. Luis Sera, a lead bio-weapons researcher who had betrayed Saddler and stolen the Dominant Plaga egg they intended to infect the US president with. There was suspicion that this was part of a planned extraction operation involving a third party,[4][5][6] and Dr. Sera was kidnapped by the villagers for interrogation. Meanwhile, Fr. Mendez was forced to coordinate his forces against the third party's agent, Ada Wong, and Leon S. Kennedy, a USSTRATCOM agent sent to rescue Ashley. Although Kennedy managed to find and free Dr. Sera, Mendez cornered them both immediately afterward and captured them.[7] Fr. Mendez was confused by Saddler's insistence on keeping Kennedy and Sera confined together, rather than executing them both,[8] but nevertheless went along with it. However, Kennedy soon escaped and passed through the Village Chief's house, where he was met by Mendez himself. He attempted to strangle the agent, but relented when Kennedy's eyes turned red in color, indicating that he had been infected with a Plaga egg. Although Mendez let Kennedy go, he warned him that he would be killed if he became "unpleasant".[9][10]

As Leon re-entered the bedroom, he was again assaulted by Mendez. However, Ada Wong, who had been watching the encounter from a nearby window, intervened and fired two bullets at Mendez.[11] The Village Chief charged out of the window in an attempt to catch her. Ada was soon knocked out by a tranquilizer dart, kidnapped, and sent to a cave to be made a human sacrifice, although she escaped before this could happen.[12]

Initially, Mendez' main priority was recapturing Sera and retrieving the Dominant Plaga sample, as the president's daughter would be useless to them without it. He assumed the Plaga egg Kennedy had been injected with would hatch and take control of him before he could cause any lasting damage, but was forced to change plans when this assumption was proven wrong. Fr. Mendez began to set up final defenses in order to prevent their escape to the castle. The defenses were fourfold: the bulk of the village force was to follow the pair over a suspension bridge and flank them inside a nearby house.[13] Beyond that house were two paths: one containing an El Gigante and another containing a second, large Ganado force.[14] Should these strategies fail, Mendez would be waiting for them in an abattoir on the other side of the valley, as the castle required Fr. Mendez's artificial eye to gain access. In the event of his death, a final Ganado force was positioned at the castle gate.

Kennedy successfully made his way to the abattoir and confronted Mendez, who twisted the door handles together to trap him inside. The agent attempted to kill Fr. Mendez by shooting at a barrel of petrol. However, he survived and mutated to have a better chance of survival. His fingernails became elongated, sharp talons; a pair of segmented limbs burst from his back, and his torso was split by a thick, spinal column-like structure edged by tiny, moving legs, greatly increasing his already impressive height.[15] Even severing him below the waist failed to kill him in this form, and in fact increased his mobility; he was able to use the limbs on his back to grab onto wooden beams and fling himself around the abattoir. He was eventually defeated, however, and his body incinerated in the petroleum-fueled fire.